A Phoenix school has been ordered closed for a week by Maricopa County health officials due to an apparent flu outbreak.

County public health director Dr. Bob England says Lowell Elementary School has been “experiencing a much higher than normal rate of absenteeism due to illness that looks like flu.”

England ordered the school closed as a precaution until May 26.

He says with swine flu and seasonal flu behaving much the same way, it’s not recommended that students already home with mild illness be tested for swine flu. So, England says it’s likely that the strain of flu will remain unknown.

Lowell Elementary School spokeswoman Sara Bresnahan said officials saw a spike of absences on Monday among the school’s 700-student population. About 20 percent of the student body called in sick.

England ordered three schools closed April 29 after students contracted swine flu. A few days later, he announced he wouldn’t order new closures unless a particular school had a widespread outbreak.

The federal stimulus plan is providing $51 million to Arizona for child care and $4 million to purchase vaccines to immunize individuals in underserved families, U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva announced Thursday.

The Pascua Yaqui Tribe will get $215,000 for child care and the Tohono O’odham Nation will receive $461,000 for child care. The money will provide vouchers to needy working families so they can get child care and continue to be employed.

Gov. Jan Brewer

PHOENIX – It looks like legislators may give Gov. Jan Brewer the fast-track legislation she wants to maintain child care subsidies now slated to be eliminated Friday because of midyear budget cuts.

A budget cleanup bill being drafted at the behest of House and Senate Republican leaders for consideration by the full Legislature this week will include a provision to authorize using $18.2 million of federal stimulus money to pay for continuing the child care subsidies through the current fiscal year, a senior Senate aide said Tuesday.

“We are targeting getting it done this week,” said Michael Hunter, a senior policy adviser to the Senate’s Republican majority.

The renewed funding would maintain subsidies for 15,000 children in low-income families now receiving the benefits. It could also benefit families of 5,000 additional children expected to start getting the subsidies in coming months if the program continues.

The subsidies, intended to provide safe care for children so their low-income parents can work, were a casualty of midyear budget cuts made by the Department of Economic Security after legislators and Brewer reduced the social-welfare agency’s budget in January to help close a big state budget shortfall.

DES sent termination notices late last week to care providers and current recipients, saying that subsidies will end Friday.

In her March 4 speech, Brewer had asked lawmakers to “quickly, and no later than March 14,” send her legislation authorizing her to use $20 million of federal stimulus money to restore the child care funding.

“This is assistance for working parents (who) won’t be working without child care; 20,000 children are depending on us,” Brewer said March 4.

According to a proposal prepared by Brewer’s office, the stimulus money provided for child care subsidies can’t be used for any other purpose. Also, it’s assumed that newly available money from an Arizona early childhood-development program funded by a tobacco tax will provide subsidies for some children who lose DES benefits, the proposal said.

In addition to maintaining subsidies, the stimulus money also would be used to roll back higher copays and reduced payments for providers that also resulted from the budget cuts, Brewer’s office said.

Unlike most categories of stimulus money, the governor cannot spend child care dollars without legislative authorization, according to both Hunter and Brewer’s office.

Though some legislative leaders had suggested that DES actually had enough money to keep the subsidies going well into spring, a department spokeswoman said it would have been irresponsible for DES officials to not send the notices to families and providers when they did.

“Every week that we do not implement these reductions means more than $1 million spent that we don’t have,” said Liz Barker Alvarez.

The authorization would be for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, Hunter said. “One thing that needs to be understood is that this is just a temporary fix,” he said.

Legislators are now in the early stages of work on a budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

Hunter said the budget cleanup bill also could include other provisions, such as changes intended to respond to actual or potential lawsuits over budget issues.

Latest reduction to further hamper child abuse probes

Another round of job cuts to the state’s Child Protective Services program means 112 case specialists are out of jobs, leaving the staff 15 percent smaller than it was earlier this year.

That translates into fewer workers to investigate complaints about child abuse, a move that one state lawmaker predicted would lead to children dying due to abusive conditions.

The agency late last week laid off 112 specialists, bringing to 159 the total number of case workers and investigators who have been dismissed as the state Department of Economic Security makes cuts to help the state balance its current-year budget.

In all, 181 CPS workers have lost their jobs due to budget cuts. DES does not expect further cuts, but lawmakers have said new budget reductions may be needed this spring.

Lawmakers on Jan. 31 approved budget revisions to resolve a $1.6 billion budget deficit; DES’ contribution is $153 million. Sen. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, said CPS workers should not be cut to the same extent as other social-service programs.

“They should be the last ones to be cut because they interact with parents and kids,” said Paton, who last year, along with now-House Speaker Kirk Adams, led the charge to increase CPS funding and make the agency more transparent.

“I think it will result in dead kids,” Paton said.

The agency last month announced that a first round of cuts meant CPS would not be able to investigate all “potential risk” reports. These are the lowest level of suspected abuse cases, but Paton said the reports, also called “priority four” reports, can lead to horrific cases.

“I’ve seen some of those priority fours turn into ‘priority nevers,’ ” he said, even when the state was able to investigate.

Early, low-level complaints can uncover horrific conditions that could avert bigger problems down the road, he said.

He said he would work to find money to reverse the cuts, noting that lawmakers are expected to revisit the current-year budget this spring.

A $48 million emergency childhood support package will soon be routed to help Arizona’s youngest.

The First Things First board voted this week to release the funds six months earlier than planned to help working families and their children in the beleaguered economy. About $24 million will be used in discretionary funding and another $24 million will be allocated to First Things First’s 31 regional councils.

The package will be used to help families with children aged 5 and under.

• $23.3 million will provide four months of child care scholarships for working families whose incomes are at or below the 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

• $500,000 for emergency food boxes.

• $24 million for family support programs, including those designed to prevent abuse and neglect.

First Things First is a voter-approved initiative and assesses an 80 cent tax on packs of cigarettes and other tobacco products. The organization relies on goals created by 31 regional councils and the first round of funding was set to be dispersed in July.

Because of the tax, First Things First isn’t directly affected by the funding shortfalls facing the state, but the state Legislature did sweep $7 million of interest earned on the organization’s coffers as lawmakers worked to close this year’s budget deficit.

J. Elliott Hibbs, First Things First executive director, will also send a letter to Gov. Jan Brewer and the state Legislature to urge them to use the federal stimulus funds to re-instate services for families of young children per the board’s direction.

’06 initiative created fund; $91M-plus going for childhood programs

More children with access to health care. Quality ratings for child-care centers. “Childhood-development kits” sent home with newborns.

Those and other plans to benefit Arizona children are being unveiled by an organization created to funnel tobacco taxes into programs to improve child development and early education in the state.

Voters in 2006 passed the First Things First initiative, or Proposition 203, adding an 80-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes and raising taxes on other tobacco products. The law set up 31 regional councils to establish goals. Beginning in July, those councils will put their goals into action.

The Arizona Republic obtained the councils’ goals this week in interviews and documents.

Because the law sets aside the tax specifically for childhood programs, those programs aren’t directly affected by the funding shortfalls facing the state, which have caused deep budget cuts elsewhere.

First Things First ended fiscal 2008 with $236.6 million: $82.7 million in its administrative account and $153.9 million for programs to benefit Arizona’s children. The organization plans to spend $91 million in its first full year on strategies set up by the regional councils, plus more money on statewide initiatives.

The state Legislature took $7 million in interest earned on First Things First’s accounts to close this year’s budget deficit. That loss won’t affect the initiative’s plans in the next few years but could hurt the organization’s long-term progress, especially if the Legislature decides to take more interest earnings to balance future budgets.

Supporting youths

First Things First relies on goals created by the councils that address concerns specific to Arizona’s regions and tribes. Each region’s funding is based on need and the number of children age 4 and younger.

The Southeast Maricopa Regional Partnership Council will use its more than $8 million in part to provide more children with access to quality health care.

The Central Phoenix Council plans to use part of its more than $11 million to help literacy development so children come to kindergarten ready to read.

Health screenings in various regions will also be done because many children start school with health issues that can impede their ability to learn. Dental care is considered especially important.

The Southeast Maricopa Council, along with other councils, plans to collaborate with existing Arizona early-childhood health care systems to improve access to health care. Outreach and enrollment assistance will be available to help connect families to public-health programs.

First Things First would also like to increase the number of child-development specialists in rural Arizona. Slight speech problems can worsen, for example, if children don’t receive therapy before they start school, said Karen Woodhouse, deputy director of the First Things First board.

“We were down in Yuma last week and heard a story about a parent who had a child diagnosed as having a predisposition for autism, and the only services she could get for that child was either in Scottsdale or 15 minutes a week of speech therapy at a local school district,” Woodhouse said. “That’s what they could provide for the family. Imagine being in a place where you couldn’t get service.”

While organizers work to meet regional goals, there are also statewide initiatives. Parents of newborns will be sent home from the hospital with kits that provide information and resources on childhood development and how to create a home that’s a good learning environment.

“Far too many children don’t come to school ready to learn,” said J. Elliott Hibbs, executive director of First Things First. “The whole idea of First Things First is to get kids ready to learn, so when they start school they are ready” for classes.

Quality child care

One of the larger initiatives will bring quality ratings and improvement to child care centers and help parents such as Julie French of Mesa find day-care centers they feel comfortable using. When French goes to work, her 7-month-old daughter, Lindsay, goes with her.

French looked for day care when she was pregnant, checking a home facility, church groups and day care centers before her mother, who is also her boss, decided that Lindsay should come to work.

French was glad to learn that the First Things First initiative will rank day-care quality on a scale of three to five stars and push centers for improvement.

The program’s first year beginning in July will be voluntary, but in two years, all such centers in Arizona will be ranked. Also, First Things First will make scholarships available to child care center workers who want to go back to school for early-childhood education.

“We haven’t dumped centers into a rating program,” said Nadine Mathis Basha, chairwoman of the First Things First board. “We are helping to support and make the facilities better.”

What’s next

Money the initiative makes off the tobacco tax is expected to decrease over time, as Arizona’s population growth levels off and more people never start or quit smoking. Because that decrease is anticipated, there is a need to save funds now. Hibbs said he was disappointed by the legislative decision to appropriate money from the fund’s interest, even though that’s not likely to have a short-term effect.

“This is a time . . . when we should be looking at the long-term needs of the state,” he said. “If you want a better education system, a highly productive work force . . . it starts with childhood development.”

For now, the regional councils are gearing up to pursue their initiatives for the next three years.

Supporting families with young children is a goal for all the regional councils.

The equivalent of a full kindergarten class is born every day at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa.

Low-income families are being hit hardest by the recession in Arizona, and new limitations on child care subsidies now will exacerbate their woes.

Parents of about 5,000 children won’t be able to enroll for the subsidies before June 30, under cuts announced last week by the state Department of Economic Security.

The subsidies average $350 a month. So what happens when working parents can’t pay for child care? Sometimes the result isn’t pretty.

Pressed to keep their jobs, some parents leave underage children alone to fend for themselves or with people who should not be trusted.

Those dangerous practices resulted in several tragedies across the nation after welfare reform was enacted in 1996 via the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act .

Nowadays, with unemployment rates soaring, most people won’t give up a job willingly, even if they can’t afford child care.

Arizonans can only hope that the 5,000 or so children at issue here will be left under responsible adult supervision when their parents head off to work.

The state’s $200 million child care subsidy program is serving about 45,000 kids this fiscal year, and those lucky families should be able to continue getting state help through June 30.

Of course, the freeze on new applications could be extended into the next fiscal year, particularly considering the projected $3 billion-plus deficit looming for 2009-2010.

But we hope the federal economic stimulus legislation will provide money for Arizona to add to its child care subsidy rolls rather than freeze out more families.

We understand that state leaders must make cuts wherever conceivable to balance the budget despite extreme revenue shortfalls. But we cannot condone cuts that have the potential to put vulnerable children at even higher risk.

One lawmaker suggested the state tap money from a tobacco tax increase approved by voters in 2006 for early childhood development programs through First Things First.

That money, however, was earmarked specifically for the nonprofit First Things First, which has regional councils of residents, teachers, parents and others decide how money best would be spent in any given geographic area.

Voters approved the tax increase on the understanding that expenditures would be decided by those grass-roots local councils – not by lawmakers facing a couple of tough budget years.

As much as we want the subsidies reinstated, it must be done fair and square – and the federal stimulus package is the best approach. We hope the money needed will be there.

Those attending a birthday party held outside the state Legislature had one wish when the candles were blown out: Don’t cut KidsCare.

The program is a state and federal collaboration that provides health coverage to low-income children and their parents. Supporters marked the 10th anniversary of KidsCare in Arizona with a birthday celebration attended by a gaggle of squirming 4- and 5-year olds, lawmakers and the Phoenix Suns Gorilla.

The celebration came as lawmakers are mulling a proposal to eliminate the program as the state looks for ways to close a $1.6 billion deficit. Cutting the program for the rest of this fiscal year – through June 30 – would save the state $23 million. Next year, the savings would be $43 million.

The program covers about 63,000 children and 9,400 parents.

“Shorting kids’ health care is penny-wise and pound-foolish,” said Dr. Mike McQueen, a neonatologist. “Children’s health care is one of the examples of preventive health that we do in this country.”

Valarie Klein knows the value of that. Her son, Gaites, was complaining of sporadic migraine headaches. After visiting various specialists, an MRI revealed a tumor lodged between his optic nerve and pituitary gland.

“Because of KidsCare, Gaites was given the most advanced medical technology,” said Klein.

Rep. John Kavanagh, whose list of budget options sparked alarm among KidsCare advocates, said the program goes beyond the federal government’s original intent with Medicaid. KidsCare is available to people making up to 40 percent more than the federal poverty limit.

However, Kavanagh said there may be hope for the program if the federal stimulus plan addresses health-care programs.

Alex and Angel Mendoza, the conjoined twins born in Phoenix in mid-August, were surgically separated Thursday night.

A team of more than 20 doctors and nurses at Phoenix Children’s Hospital worked for more than 12 hours to take the boys, who had been conjoined from their chests to their pelvises, and give them two separate bodies.

The boys were stable throughout the operation, but challenges remained.

Surgery continued late Thursday night, as separate teams worked on the long process of reconstruction to close each boy’s body.

Even if each surgery is successfully completed by Friday, as doctors expect, the boys will face more surgeries and intensive rehabilitation. Still, for the first time, their doctors can look at each one – and treat each one – as a separate person.

On the day Alex and Angel were born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, doctors immediately began planning the operation that would separate them.

That day, their great-grandmother, Joan Bandel of Kingman, said, “The good Lord gave us this for a reason. We will love them together or apart.”

Conjoined twins Alex (left) and Angel Mendoza are shown on Jan. 8 at Phoenix Children's Hospital in Phoenix. A surgery to separate the conjoined twins is set for Thursday.

PHOENIX – Conjoined twins were doing well Friday after Phoenix doctors successfully separated them.

A Phoenix Children’s Hospital spokeswoman said it took 12 hours to separate the twins and then several more hours of work on each boy before surgeons finished about 1 a.m. Friday.

She says the procedure couldn’t have gone better for Alex and Angel Mendoza and the boys were resting in the hospital’s neonatal unit.

The twins were born last summer and were joined from just below their sternums all the way down through their pelvises.

A team of more than 20 doctors and nurses worked to give the boys separate bodies and the two were stable throughout the surgery.

Ashley Frank of Kingman gave birth in mid-August to the twins at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix.

Two young boys who admitted stoning and then hanging a 4-month-old kitten are too young to be charged with a crime and will instead be sent through a diversion program, authorities say.

Arizona State University associate Professor Christina Risley-Curtiss has worked with children who abuse animals and has been asked by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to help counsel the boys, ages 6 and 7, through ASU’s new Children and Animals Together Assessment and Diversion program, which specializes in treating children 6 to 17 years old who abuse animals.

“Our issue is to get them young,” said Risley-Curtiss, the program’s founder. “Research does show this kind of activity is a marker. What it says is these kids are troubled and they need help.”

A neighbor contacted the Sheriff’s Office after finding the cat’s body at a trailer park in Mesa. It was hanging by its neck from a backyard tree at one boy’s home.

The boys used a piece of wire from a video-game controller to string up the kitten, which appeared to have been beaten with a rock, authorities said. The boys told deputies they were playing the video game Grand Theft Auto, which has been condemned by some as promoting criminal behavior.

Deputies contacted state Child Protective Services, which declined to get involved, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Elizabeth Barker, a CPS spokeswoman, said Friday the agency was investigating the incident to determine whether the family could benefit from a range of programs, including counseling and parenting classes.

Further complicating the case, the Sheriff’s Office said, is that the 7-year-old’s mother is an illegal immigrant. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Tuesday that if the law would have allowed it, he would have arrested the boys on animal cruelty charges.

“I’d love to prosecute them, but I can’t,” he said.

Arpaio said the boy’s mother has been turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Vincent Picard, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, said that without the woman’s name, which was not released, he was unable to determine whether she was detained, deported or simply told to appear in court.

A Sheriff’s Office child forensic specialist interviewed the boys with their parents and persuaded them to pursue counseling for the children.

Arpaio and Risley-Curtiss agree that animal abuse, especially at the hands of young children, could be a precursor to future crime and/or physical abuse later in life.

Risley-Curtiss has yet to be contacted by the boys’ parents, but said those in the program undergo an in-depth social-work assessment followed by a nine-hour diversion intervention.

“We try to get at what are the reasons and what’s behind this behavior,” she said, noting that studies have shown that 90 percent of animal physical-cruelty cases are done by males. The majority of animal neglect and abuse cases are by women, she said.

The children’s program has teamed with the Arizona Animal Welfare League to work with children on accountability and behavior issues, as well teach how to properly handle and care for animals.

Short of the family seeking help from the program, Arpaio is asking any a qualified child counselor interested in volunteering their services to the boys to call 602-876-1681.

MESA – Natural food entrees are now on the menu at three Scottsdale elementary schools.

The pilot program that debuted Sept. 15 in the Scottsdale Unified School District offers new twists on old classics, such as macaroni and cheese and lasagna, at double the cost of the traditional cafeteria menu items.

But school officials say parents don’t seem to mind plunking down the extra cash for the freshly prepared, preservative-free $5 natural meals.

In the first two weeks of the school year, the district reported that some 500 natural entrees were ordered by parents for their children.

“We have parents who feel strictly about serving their children food without preservatives. They’ve become mindful of pesticides and preservatives found in some foods,” said Sue Bettenhausen, the Scottsdale district’s director of nutrition services.

Bettenhausen, the former director of food services at America West Airlines, said she was approached in April by Kiva Elementary School PTO co-president Pam Kirby, who said a number of parents were asking for natural, preservative-free offerings on the lunch menu.

The natural options menu, Bettenhausen said, is freshly prepared from scratch on site at Kiva’s kitchen, using a bevy of ingredients including all-natural meats, organic bread and triple-washed produce that meet Arizona nutrition standards. Meals, she said, need to be pre-ordered online on the district Web site in order to ensure that there are enough meals prepared on a given day.

Bettenhausen is quick to point out that the $2.25 traditional cafeteria fare also boasts nutritious offerings, but differs in that it is pre-processed and not 100 percent preservative-free.

Kevin Berk, who has three children ages 7 to 11 attending Kiva, said having natural options is a welcome addition.

Before this school year, Berk said, his children, who eat an organic diet at home, had to brown-bag their lunch.

“It’s nice that a public school is taking the time, effort and money on something that’s important to parents,” he said.

Some parents say they’ve seen their children become more willing to try new foods after seeing the meals presented on the festive red and white cart in the cafeteria.

“My daughter told me she likes the Caesar salad and the whole-wheat lasagna,” Kirby said of daughter Madison, a Kiva third-grader who rarely cared for whole-wheat foods or salads at home.

Bettenhausen said some foods turned out to be instant crowd-pleasers among the finicky grade schoolers.

“Who knew salmon would be a hit?” she asked, adding that hummus and edamame in the shells have become popular snack picks.

Kiva parent Justine Hurry said her two young children like the fruit on a stick and hummus and chips from the natural options menu. But she said the overall menu, which is still evolving in this test phase, could use a little fine-tuning.

“My son didn’t like broccoli mixed in the mac and cheese,” Hurry said. She would like to see traditional favorites added to the natural options menu, such as grilled cheese made with natural cheese on whole-wheat bread.

Katy Donmoyer (center), who is autistic, and Dina Geotas (right) play jump rope during recess at Copper Ridge Elementary School in Scottsdale.

PHOENIX – It was Katy Donmoyer’s habit to spend recess alone, circling the perimeter of her Scottsdale elementary playground.

Her sister, Leah, hovered silently near groups of playing children, who ignored her.

But last month, however, the 9-year-old twins were taking turns jumping rope, even doubles, with classmates in the middle of Copper Ridge Elementary School’s crowded and chaotic playground. To behavioral scientists, the change is more evidence that their new strategy to help autistic kids fit into recess is working.

To the twins’ mother, it is hope her daughters will have a social life despite a disorder marked by an inability to understand the give and take of conversation, play and making friends.

In January, Copper Ridge’s playground became an incubator for a new kind of recess in which kids teach their autistic classmates about the joys of the playground. And autistic kids teach them a little compassion.

In the past nine years, as the number of Arizona school kids grew by 25 percent, the number diagnosed with autism grew fivefold. More than 5,000 autistic kids are in Arizona’s K-12 schools.

More schools across the country are training teachers and adding teaching assistants so more of these children can learn in a regular classroom.

But Copper Ridge is among the first to find ways for these children to successfully fit into the often intimidating social mix of recess.

The program being refined on its playground will help create a blueprint for schools across the nation.

It has already attracted the attention of Scottsdale parents, who are increasingly seeking to enroll their autistic children in the school.

Parents are eager to make sure their autistic children do not end up like many: isolated by their peers, bullied and, as they get older, depressed.

“You see your child progressing academically,” said Karen Donmoyer, the twins’ mother. “But, more importantly, you realize: I want my child to be happy. I want my child to have friends. That was the piece that wasn’t getting attention.”

Scottsdale Unified School District helps the Donmoyer twins and other high-functioning autistic students fit into regular classrooms for most of the day.

Schools often use recess time to group autistic children in quiet spaces, where they can play games and learn the art of conversation or send them to the playground to drift.

Karen Donmoyer wanted a better option.

The Phoenix-based Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center worked with her to create something better for the entire school.

The center’s coaches organize the favorite activities of the students with autism, such as a board game or a game of tag, on the playground. With a little encouragement, the games attract a variety of students. Coaches use the games to teach kids with autism and their classmates the skills they need to play together.

“You are then positively impacting both the child with autism and the typical children because you’re getting these kids to be compassionate toward each other,” Donmoyer said. “It’s not rocket science.”

Other center staff members shoot video or count the number of interactions and other changes in the behavior of all kids. They also track children’s behavior and progress inside the classroom.

Preliminary data show autistic kids are initiating more contacts, other kids are more responsive, and the adults are learning a few things.

For example, many were surprised that most kids preferred organized games during recess over free play, said Daniel Openden, the center’s clinical director who began developing the new strategies a few years ago while a graduate student in Santa Barbara, Calif.

“The kids flock to you,” he said. “It’s like a magnet.”

What school officials noted immediately was a dip in the number of kids referred to the principal for misbehaving during recess.

Both in Santa Barbara and Scottsdale, the structured games attracted class clowns and the same kids most likely to bully, Openden said.

“They are our most stellar and frequent participants,” he said.

It has also cut back on the amount of classroom time spent settling playground spats.

“The beauty of the program is that it does help all kids,” Copper Ridge Principal Sheila Burnham said. “Teachers are very supportive because a lot of instruction time, when the students come back to the classroom, is spent putting out fires from lunchtime. They find now students come back more calm and collected.”

Helping an autistic child develop a relationship with a non-autistic child is good for both, said Susan Walczynski, executive director of the National Autism Center, based in Massachusetts.

But research on the subject has been confined to special programs and special settings.

“We need to see more research like what’s going on in Scottsdale, in a real-world setting,” Walczynski said.

“It’s an increasing trend, but not as fast as we would hope it to be. Scottsdale is really on the cutting edge.”

The Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center is creating a step-by-step manual that could help implement similar programs in all Scottsdale’s elementary schools.

Eventually, if research continues to show positive results, it is likely to be used in schools throughout the state and nation.

Donmoyer is convinced it’s making a difference in her kids’ lives.

“They are the kids who will be co-workers of my kids; they could be employers of my kids,” Donmoyer said.

“If they’re trained at a young age to respect and value people with differences, then it’s my hope they will carry it through.”

The conjoined twins born in Phoenix this summer are growing healthy and strong.

The boys, named Alex and Angel, weigh 6 pounds 6 ounces each. They are eating well and sleeping well and acting normally for their age.

The best news is coming from the medical team that is studying Alex and Angel with the goal of ultimately separating them.

“We haven’t learned anything that would be prohibitive to us being able to separate them,” said Dr. Stuart Lacey, a pediatric surgeon at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

The process is likely to take place within the next six to nine months.

The babies are joined from the bottom of their chests to the bottom of their torsos. They share liver tissue, but that is something Lacey is confident can be worked out in surgery.

Doctors will need to construct abdominal walls for each boy, as well, and complications with their large intestines are anticipated.

One of the bigger challenges for Alex and Angel may be in their hips and pelvic bones, where doctors note fusion.

When explaining this to the parents on Tuesday, Lacey said, “I’m not sure if that’s going to be a big problem, or just a problem we’re going to have to deal with.”

The boys’ parents, Ashley Frank and Johnny Mendoza, who live in Kingman, have moved to Phoenix to be closer to the twins, who are in the neonatal intensive care unit at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

When Frank went to see her doctor in May, it was simply to learn the sex of the one child she thought she was carrying. The ultrasound indicated she was pregnant with twins.

Upon closer examination, her doctor realized the children were joined.

The babies were delivered in August by Caesarean section with a team of more than 20 doctors and nurses standing by to help if necessary.

Fortunately, the birth was fairly uneventful.

Eventually, Frank and Mendoza will take the boys home to their Phoenix apartment. The children will get outpatient treatment until it’s time to separate them.

The boys are just 50 days old today, and Frank says they have started showing plenty of personality.

“Oh, definitely,” she said. “Angel, it turns out, is a real devil.”

Frank and Mendoza know their boys will face difficult challenges, but they take heart in that doctors keep assuring them the children are fundamentally healthy.

“I can’t wait till they get bigger, and we can separate them,” Mendoza said. “I know it will be a long process, but I can’t wait to take them to the park and play soccer with them.”

———

How to help

If you would like to help the twins and their family, an account has been set up at a bank in Kingman.

Donations are being accepted for account #6107801059, in the name of the Mendoza twins, at Mohave State Bank, 2202 Hualapai Mountain Road, Kingman, AZ 86401.

Allegedly kept $11,000 intended for custom go-cart

An Arizona man has been accused of cheating a Chicago boy with a terminal illness out of a go-cart, authorities said Thursday.

Douglas Riesberg, 53, received $11,000 from the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Chicago chapter in March for a custom go-cart for the sick boy, who is 16 and on dialysis, Yavapai County sheriff’s spokesman Dwight D’Evelyn said. But the go-cart never was delivered, and the money never returned.

A request to interview Riesberg, of Spring Valley, was not immediately answered, and it was unclear whether he had a lawyer.

Phoenix-based Make-A-Wish grants the wishes of severely ill children, sending them and their families on trips to Disney World and arranging for them to be police officers for a day, among others.

The Chicago boy, whose name was withheld, wished for a go-cart with a travel trailer so he could take it off-roading wherever and whenever he wanted.

When Riesberg was paid $11,000 in March, D’Evelyn said he told the foundation the go-cart would be finished in three weeks. But Make-A-Wish didn’t hear from him until a foundation lawyer found him in June.

Riesberg then said the go-cart would be done in July. After not hearing from Riesberg again, Make-A-Wish asked the sheriff’s office for help last month.

Deputies found that Riesberg already was jailed in Prescott on drug charges and interviewed him Saturday about the go-cart. Riesberg told deputies that he was having problems getting a custom go-cart and had planned to deliver his personal go-cart to the boy until the custom one could be finished.

D’Evelyn said Riesberg told deputies he used the $11,000 from Make-A-Wish to help make up for a recent business loss of $80,000. Riesberg had a custom go-cart business and other business interests, D’Evelyn said.

He said Riesberg and the boy had been in constant contact, and the boy had thought of him as a father. The boy’s own father left his family a couple years ago when his son first got sick, D’Evelyn said.

“He was treating Riesberg like the father he didn’t have,” D’Evelyn said. “He felt very betrayed.”

D’Evelyn said the boy is hospitalized and that he hasn’t received a go-cart.

Make-A-Wish spokesman Brent Goodrich said the foundation is working with the family to make sure the wish is granted and trying to figure out how the Chicago chapter contracted with Riesberg.

“This is obviously a very traumatic situation for the family and the chapter,” Goodrich said. “We’re trying to resolve this as soon as possible for the child’s sake.”

Riesberg remains jailed on fraud and theft charges as well as the drug charges.